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Arrieta is terrible. Hitters are squaring up on Arrieta. That means Arrieta would have to wish for a line drive right at a player. But more times than not, a line drive gets down for a ht. He needs to be demoted. I'am tired about hearing how unlucky he is. Anybody would be an upgrade over him right now. Betemit better get his act together. His OBP is .298. His best position was supposed to be handling the bat but so far, he hasn't done that. He has also put together some sloppy defense.Our bullpen is magnificent. It has been all year. And to think we've been doing this without Lindstrom for a large chunk of this season.If Chris Davis keeps hitting the way he's been hitting, he's gonna be at first base for awhile. Yeah he strikes out alot and plays pretty crappy defense. He's shown he can hit the long ball often, he's shown he can hang in there vs. lefties, and he's shown he can keep the OBP up.Flaherty looked horrible at the plate last night but has gotten some nice AB's put together before that.Nick Johnson is a useless player on the roster once Pearce was acquired.Eveland has been solid out of the pen and deserves to be in consideration for a few starts.

I'm firmly in the sabermetric camp, but I can see how it could be tough for some people to continue to back Arrieta. That being said, how can you (and/or anyone else) argue against statistical analysis if you don't fully understand it? Beyond that, what's the longterm benefit of pitching someone whose ceiling is just "better than Arrieta is pitching now?" You've seen how good Arrieta can be because he has dominant innings within these games. Giving Arrieta more chances than the fans would give him is the best option for this team longterm.

osforlife wrote:Eveland has been solid out of the pen and deserves to be in consideration for a few starts.

I disagree. Eveland belongs in the bullpen if he's going to be in the Majors. You want to talk about terrible? How about 6 walks and 2 HBPs? He is overmatched in a starting role. I think he makes a fine longman out of the bullpen.

I'd leave Tillman where he is.He started out rough but may now be starting to get it.I think it is a mistake to rush him up here after a few good appearances. Let him stay there and get established. Give him time to learn to repeat what he's doing.

I'm all for Tillman being the next man up. Peterson said they found some stuff doing doing the biomechanical analysis in his delivery that needed fixing and it looks like they got it fixed. Reports on him have been great all season even when the results weren't there.

I wouldn't bring up Steve Johnson, he has struggled mightily since coming back from the DL.

Could Peterson come up and work with Arrieta?? Seems like he is the master of fixing problems. I would also leave Tillman where he is until he puts three or four dominant starts together. I would like to see Gonzalez get a start.